Here's yet another entry for the Fiscal Con page (see the link for an explanation and past examples).

This one comes from Conn Carroll in the Washington Examiner ("Can conservatives prevent the U.S. from becoming California?", link):

Don't think for a second that California's chronic deficits are caused by low taxes. Even before last Tuesday's tax hikes, California had the most progressive income tax system in the nation...

The real cause for California's fiscal crisis is simple: They spend too much money...

What are Californians getting for all this government spending? According to a new census report released Friday, almost one-quarter, 23.5 percent, of all Californians are in poverty. One-third of all the nation's welfare recipients live in the state, despite the fact that California has only one-eighth of the country's population. That's four times as many as the next-highest welfare population, which is New York. Meanwhile, California eighth-graders finished ahead of only Mississippi and District of Columbia students on reading and math test scores in 2011.

Middle-class families that want actual jobs, not welfare, are fleeing California in droves. According to IRS data compiled by the Manhattan Institute, since 2000, almost 2 million Americans have left California for other states. Their most popular destination: Texas.

It isn't a tough move to make. Thanks to low taxes and simple regulations, Chief Executive magazine ranked Texas as the best state to do business in for 2012. Guess who ranked dead last? That's right, California. And not only does Texas (6.8 percent) have a far lower unemployment rate than California (10.2 percent), but, according to the Census Bureau, income inequality is worse in California than it is in Texas.

Don't think for a second that California's problems are due just to librulism: "conservatives" did plenty to help. The main reason California is in the shape it's in is because of massive, low-skilled immigration, as discussed in detail on the Fiscal Con page and in the California entries. This post is on that page too, because Carroll doesn't say a peep about immigration [1].

If "conservatives" can't even be intellectually honest about the role that the policies their leaders support have led us to the current situation, how can they come up with a solution?

------------------
[1] I was initially not going to add this post to the Fiscal Con page because I found at least two Carroll posts that do mention immigration: "Amnesty would only make it worse" ( peekURL.com/zGMnPau ) and "Romney's secret plan to end illegal immigration" ( peekURL.com/z6arQtp ). Then, I saw this linked at HotAir and other sites, so I changed my mind.